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Single Idea 17932

[filed under theme 6. Mathematics / B. Foundations for Mathematics / 7. Mathematical Structuralism / e. Structuralism critique ]

Full Idea

In re structuralism does not posit anything other than the kinds of structures that are in fact found in the world. ...The problem is that the world may not provide rich enough structures for the mathematics.

Gist of Idea

If 'in re' structures relies on the world, does the world contain rich enough structures?

Source

Mark Colyvan (Introduction to the Philosophy of Mathematics [2012], 3.1.2)

Book Ref

Colyvan,Mark: 'An Introduction to the Philosophy of Mathematics' [CUP 2012], p.41

A Reaction

You can perceive a repeating pattern in the world, without any interest in how far the repetitions extend.

The 21 ideas from 'Introduction to the Philosophy of Mathematics'

17922 Reducing real numbers to rationals suggested arithmetic as the foundation of maths [Colyvan]
17923 Intuitionists only accept a few safe infinities [Colyvan]
17926 Rejecting double negation elimination undermines reductio proofs [Colyvan]
17925 Showing a disproof is impossible is not a proof, so don't eliminate double negation [Colyvan]
17924 Excluded middle says P or not-P; bivalence says P is either true or false [Colyvan]
17928 Ordinal numbers represent order relations [Colyvan]
17930 Axioms are 'categorical' if all of their models are isomorphic [Colyvan]
17929 Löwenheim proved his result for a first-order sentence, and Skolem generalised it [Colyvan]
17931 Structuralism say only 'up to isomorphism' matters because that is all there is to it [Colyvan]
17932 If 'in re' structures relies on the world, does the world contain rich enough structures? [Colyvan]
17934 Proof by cases (by 'exhaustion') is said to be unexplanatory [Colyvan]
17933 Reductio proofs do not seem to be very explanatory [Colyvan]
17935 If inductive proofs hold because of the structure of natural numbers, they may explain theorems [Colyvan]
17936 Transfinite induction moves from all cases, up to the limit ordinal [Colyvan]
17937 Mathematical generalisation is by extending a system, or by abstracting away from it [Colyvan]
17938 Mathematics can show why some surprising events have to occur [Colyvan]
17939 Mathematics can reveal structural similarities in diverse systems [Colyvan]
17940 Most mathematical proofs are using set theory, but without saying so [Colyvan]
17941 Infinitesimals were sometimes zero, and sometimes close to zero [Colyvan]
17942 Can a proof that no one understands (of the four-colour theorem) really be a proof? [Colyvan]
17943 Probability supports Bayesianism better as degrees of belief than as ratios of frequencies [Colyvan]